Bittersweet
by GeishaKitten
Summary: Very simple one shot concerning Sasuke and his thoughts on well, birthday cake, written in honor of his birthday of course. Read and review.


Well, wells, this is just a little something that I wrote up in honor of Sasuke kun's birtday...very simple really, I'm not sure whether you'd call it a vignette of sorts? Just two seperate, contrasting birthday experiences or something like that, I suck at explanations, but yesh, you get a little of the cute Sasuke and a little of the emo Sasuke, so read and review my luvs...

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"Don't all children love cake? Why can't you be like the other kids?" Uchiha Mikoto pleaded unsuccessfully to her younger son while trying as discreetly as she could to wipe up the pink, sticky spit up mess, which had only seconds before been a temptingly moist bite of specially prepared, strawberry flavored birthday cake, from her lap.

However, wiping it only caused the stain to spread noticeably; the rosy color of it matching the blush of her cheeks as she nervously stared around at the various close family members who had gathered in honor of the occasion.

Sasuke sat with his mouth firmly and stubbornly closed, his plump little arms crossed defiantly around his middle as he shook his head from side to side to prevent yet another forkful from entering his mouth against his will. His childish pride, not to mention his patience, was being severely tested by the sight of his mother waving a cake filled fork around his face as if he were a mere infant, born only a few days ago rather than six years, to be exact. To make the whole ordeal all the more insulting, she was doing this in front of others, in front of family, in front of the very people to whom Sasuke wished to appear his most mature and well behaved.

And as he was all too painfully aware, letting the despised, forced bites of birthday cake come flying right out of his mouth was neither mature nor well behaved. Still, it wasn't as if he could help himself as the thought of more of the sugary, syrupy stuff going deep down into his innermost parts nearly caused him to gag once again.

It was this sort of yearly torture that caused him to dread birthdays at the same time as he wished for them. Sure, he loved being the center of all of his parent's attention for once, but as his mother had pointed out, he wasn't like all the other kids. Sweets made him feel dizzy, dazed, and sick. He was never in the least bit tempted by them and he didn't really understand why others, especially girls were so darned crazy about them. He especially couldn't figure out why something that was forbidden to young ninja students in training most times suddenly became obligatory on days of celebration. His mother stood up suddenly with one hand on her hip.

"How could you not have a piece of the cake that your mother worked so hard to make for you?" There was definitely a note of irritation in her usually gentle voice.

"If he doesn't want the rest of his, I would be glad to finish it for him." Sasuke eagerly turned his head towards the light-hearted sound of his older brother's voice and saw his eyes; hungry pleading eyes.

Unlike Sasuke, Itachi was crazy about sweets. Naturally, being the pride of the family and all, anything that might rob him of optimum health and strength was expressly forbidden, and besides that, Itachi was often teased by his best friend Shisui for his many girlish habits, so it was only rarely that he was able to indulge in anything even remotely resembling a sweet. Sasuke would gladly let him have the whole thing if he wanted it.

He looked with disgust at the pink cake set perfectly in the center of the table and wondered if there was such a thing as tomato-flavored cake. There was carrot cake after all, so perhaps a tomato flavor wouldn't be all that awful. Would a tomato flavored cake be pink, red, or maybe even orange? He mused on this with some fascination for a couple of minutes before realizing that his mother had reluctantly given up, and that his dreaded plate had been completely cleared by his grateful brother.

He suddenly blushed with embarrassment as he realized that someone like his brother would never have thrown such a tantrum over something like cake, even when he was six.

Itachi would probably consume insects if it were the polite thing to do without as much as a complaint. He was always perfectly behaved; his parents had always said so.

"At least somebody appreciated my hard work," Mikoto said with a giggle and a small pat on Itachi's head. Itachi returned her smile with an equally contented and angelic looking smile of his own, which for some reason caused Sasuke's stomach to turn as he thought of something that he had never really noticed before.

Just why did Itachi have to look so unbearably _sweet_ all of the time?

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_Five years later_

Sasuke sat at on his chair at his desk with his arms wrapped around his knees quite improperly, shielding his face so that nobody would dare attempt to approach him. He despised sympathy more than almost anything, and on this day, his birthday, he tended to receive it in spades.

He knew just what to expect by now. Girls giving him cakes that they and their mothers had baked special, just for him. They never said it, but he could always read the thought that followed. _Because you no longer have a mother to do it for you, Sasuke-kun._ It made him want to throw up all over them and their silly little cupcakes. If they really got to know him (not that he would ever give any of them that chance, of course) they'd know how much the very sight of their saccharine flavored labors of love disgusted him.

With a deep sigh, he thought that he'd do almost anything, _anything_, to have his mother back with him. He wouldn't even mind those hated birthday cakes that she made him try year after year. He would be a normal kid just like everybody else.

_Why can't you be like the other kids?_ Sasuke sighed and slowly stretched his legs, looking around the classroom as though he had just woken up from a long nap. That odd school smell which he particularly hated, that papers-and-pencils smell with a little bit of cupcake unfortunately thrown in made him feel strangely lightheaded.

Completely ignoring the many love confession filled- birthday cards that had somehow made their way onto his desk, he looked around at the many kids who were absolutley nothing like him and never would be; who both looked up to him as some sort of miracle student but who kept their distance from him, tragedies of his kind being something that they weren't yet able to fully comprehend and didn't want to at that.

There was only one other kid who shared his fate of being parentless, only there were never any cupcakes or cards on the table for him as far as Sasuke knew. Sasuke wondered if he even knew when his birthday was. The way he was treated by most of the kids in class, one would think that he had suddenly sprung out of the dirt one day like a weed in serious need of pulling. In spite of all this, Sasuke envied his anonymity, feeling as though it might be convenient to be ignored from time to time.

"Hey!" Sasuke nearly jumped out of his seat as the very blonde whom he had been thinking about just moments before seemed to materialize from behind him out of nowhere, whispering in his ear, only this was no normal whisper. A whisper from Naruto was like a word spoken at a normal volume for any other child, and his normal manner of speaking was like a normal child's screaming. Good God, this was one of the many reasons that Sasuke hated being forced to socialize.

"What do you want?" Sasuke brought himself to ask.

"You gonna eat those cupcakes, cause if not, then I think that I am before Chouji gets to them."

"Naruto! There is no way in hell that I'm gonna let you eat that, I spent hours making those…!"

Whether it was Ino or Sakura or any other rabid fangirl suddenly attempting to beat Naruto senseless, Sasuke didn't take the time to notice or to even acknowledge, as he was easily out of the room without any of them noticing.

He could still hear the loud, screeching tone of Naruto's voice as he fled the school to be home, alone, on this of all days. He brought his hands to his ears, covering them, blocking out all sound, feeling as though he hated all of the noise, hated all of them, hated everything when he knew that he had no business hating any of them. They didn't do anything to him. It was because of Itachi that he would never be able to fit in with any of them, but did he even really want to?

Just why do I have to feel so unbearably _bitter_ all of the time, he thought to himself, sucking his breath in and turning to walk towards the school once again, deciding to put off returning to an empty home for just a few more hours.

END

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Review!!


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